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News & Rumors

EFTELINGThe Netherlands

Park News - (3/17/18) The addition of the new Symbolica dark ride really paid off for Efteling it seems, as the local news reports that The Netherlands theme park recorded an annual attendance of 5.18 million guests for 2017, up from 4.76 million from the 2016 season, hitting an all time record high. Congratulations to Efteling, and while I haven't visited it myself, it is near the top of my list of international parks to visit someday in the future. (10/6/17) Rumor has it that Eftleling may have decided the fate of the Bobs coaster, with 2018 rumored to be your last chance to ride. For now we’ll have to wait to see if the park makes an official statement to back this up. (9/15/17) According to this article, Efteling began a new test program back in August allowing guests to book a time to ride the park’s Python roller coaster, free of charge. They say they are working on allowing guests to do this through the park mobile app, or through a machine placed at the entrance to the coaster, reserving a slot during the day where you wont wait any more than 15-minutes for your ride. Anyone know if they have added the mobile app part, or added any more rides to the program by now? (9/13/17) An interesting posting to Loopings claims that Efteling may be experiencing increasing downtime issues with the park’s old Bob coaster (1985 Intamin Bobsled). While they have not threatened to remove the ride yet, there are rumors that they may be forced to retire it sooner than later and may be looking into option to repair, renovate or even replace the old coaster. To me knowledge only a handful of these rides were ever built in the mid-80s, and there are currently only three running still today. (Other than Bob, there is La Vibora at Six Flags over Texas and Alpine Bobsled at The Great Escape) If replacement is an option, I believe Mack Rides still offers their version of the bobsled coaster concept for sale, and built their last new one in 2001 for Parc Asterix. I’ve ridden the version at Europa Park and Kings Dominion and find them to be quite fun family coasters with fast loading and much better capacity due to the long trains.

2018 - Rebuild Python - (1/22/18) An article in the local news mentions something interesting about Efteling. Assuming the Google Translation is accurate, they say that the park will be tearing down The Python coaster and then rebuilding it again between now and March 2018, just in time to reopen to guests on March 31st. Python opened way back in 1981, so the coaster is quite old, and from the sound of it they will be replacing most of the old track with new track I assume, for an improved experience.

2019?? - New Coaster - Rumor - (10/6/17) Another rumor this week for Efteling suggests that the park may be planning their next coaster to open as early as 2019, possibly located somewhere between Vogel Rok and Ruigrijk area. No solid leads on what style coaster it will be, though some have suggested it may be time for a launched coaster. Looking at the lineup myself though, I'm thinking they may be in dire need of an inverted or flying coaster as well.

2020 - New Attraction / Park Expansion - (1/20/18) Efteling is ready to begin moving forward with a dramatic plans to expand the park into new land as part of their "World of Efteling 2030" masterplan. According to a new post at BlooLoop, they have come to the government to ask for permission to begin working on the first phase of this expansion in order to prepare the 3 hectares site for a new attraction they wish to open in 2020. According to a map shown, the first phase site will be across the back road of the park, right next door to the Efteling Hotel. This makes me wonder if the 2020 attraction, may be part of the New Coaster rumor we heard a few months back predicted for 2019... as the location given for the coaster (somewhere between Vogel Rok and the Ruigrijk area) is also exactly where the future 2020 to 2030 expansion site lies. Stay tuned...